Is it true that acceptance rates (for a single university) differ by what major I apply to?
For instance, would I have less chance getting accepted to Harvard if I apply for Business Administration (best, nationally) rather than, say, World History?(if that’s less known)
<p>Harvard has no business administration or world history majors.
Acceptance rates at universities can differ by major. This particularly is true for places that have, for instance, engineering schools, which tend to require higher board scores, particularly math and science ones, than do other parts of universities.</p>
<p>Most schools I have seen claim that it doesn't matter within a certain college what major you apply to (ie, as long as you're applying Letters and Sciences, major doesn't matter; but applying L&S versus Engineering matters a lot) as long as you don't apply to an impacted major (that is, a major that traditionally sees a lot of applicants).</p>
<p>However, I can't see a college that doesn't admit without /some/ consciousness toward the majors it has to fill, so I imagine that in some tangential way you might be filling a niche for them if you choose a less common major. However! Purely doing this to increase chances of admission won't work; they know people change majors, and it's pretty obvious when you've been taking Econ, Intro to Business, are a member of FBLA, etc. that you're more likely to choose a business-related major than go into, say, chemistry.</p>
<p>You can do what you are thinking if you follow logic. Say you want to choose a not hugely popular major.....say Classical Studies but you have never taken Latin, only required history, and you don't write an essay or other documentation of your plan.....transparent choice. Now perhaps your school did not offer Latin but you have been dying to study classics and your school knows this and you can build a sell for yourself....go for it. Saying you want to choose Chemistry but have not built a documentation for yourself....or say musical theatre but no effort......adcoms look for many small clues to what you are really telling them. Colleges fill all departments but most, I repeat most Frosh change majors. Does this help you. Classic example:: apply to Columbia College NYC and tell them you want to major in journalism.....they know you did NO research.......this would be a graduate program. Think for yourself.</p>